food insecurity

Nearly 8 percent of adults age 65 and older are food insecure, meaning they do not always have balanced meals or enough to eat because they cannot afford it. However, there are significant racial and ethnic disparities in food insecurity among older adults. Black and Hispanic seniors are over three times more likely to experience food insecurity than their white and Asian counterparts. In fact, nearly 1 in 5 black seniors are food insecure, compared to about 1 in 18 …

En español | Food insecurity is a significant public health problem for older adults. In 2014, nearly 8 percent (3.47 million) of Americans age 65 and older were living in food insecure households, meaning they did not have balanced meals or enough to eat because they could not afford it. According to current estimates, the share of food-insecure older adults will increase 50 percent by 2025. Many low-income older adults who suffer from food insecurity are often forced to use …

The nation’s face of hunger is changing: More than 8 million boomers ages 50 to 64 are turning to charities for food assistance, according to a new report by Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks that provide food and groceries to Americans in need. “Hunger is an invisible problem that millions of older Americans battle silently every day. We have found that the ‘youngest old’ – people 50 to 59 – tend to suffer the most, often having …

Finish your peas and carrots and you can join the “clean plate club.” That’s what my parents told my brother and me when we were growing up. They had lived through the depression and wanted to be sure nothing at our table went to waste. A report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) this week reminds me of the painful truth behind our lighthearted family tradition. It sends up an alarm about the astounding 1.3 billion tons …

This is a guest post by Becky Squires. Becky is a writer-editor for AARP Foundation. The United States might be the land of plenty, but many people cannot afford to buy what’s on offer – including food. A new Gallup survey conducted from January to June 2012 found one in four Mississippians (24.9%) said they could not afford to buy food for themselves or their families at least once over the past year. Alabama (22.9%) and Delaware (22.1%) ranked second …

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared as an article in the May/June 2012 issue of Aging Today but has been edited for length. According to the U.S. Census, more than 2.5 million grandparents in America are householders responsible for grandchildren who live with them, and almost 20 percent are living in poverty. More than a third of these households have no parents present. A recent AARP survey found about one in 10 grandparents have grandchildren living in the home, and 43 percent …